


Omens of Starfall

by OpInFlames



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Illustrations, Memory Alteration, Slow Burn, chameleon arc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:01:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22970668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpInFlames/pseuds/OpInFlames
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 43
Kudos: 95





	1. Chasing Stars

That familiar whir of the Doctors’ Tardis materializing was a comfort.  
She actually answered his call and came to see him. Not that it was much of a call as it was a scream, as telepathy has a way of giving one’s emotional state away.

But, he didn’t want to die alone. And die for real this time. That familiar burn of cells simultaneously dying and being reborn in a searing flame never came. Only empty, draining death.

\----

The Tardis had barely materialized before Thirteen burst forth from the door, only pausing long enough to make sure there was ground to step on. It didn’t take more than half a second to find Master splayed out in the short wild grasses of this field. She rushed to him, whatever thought of this being a trap banished from her mind. Were this a trap he would have started gloating and trying to “kill” her already. This was serious.

He tried to greet her in his usual cocksure way, trying to be as cool as possible but it didn’t come out right. He could barely move and his breathing wasn’t normal. She propped his head up on her knees in hopes it would let him communicate better. He weakly entwined his hand with hers and she didn’t pull away. He immediately began to quietly muse about what if he hadn't been turned into a weapon or what if he had been born a human and she picked him to be a companion. Maybe she would have loved him then like she does her companions, maybe like he did her. Maybe if the drums would have ever stopped but they never did. He had tears silently streaming into his hair now.

She listened while he grew quieter with every word. She can react to this information later, after she’s saved him.

A thought slipped through the link, unbidden: “What if I were human? Why wasn’t I human? Please turn me human…if only”

Human. The Arc?

She comes up with a quick plan that if he's dying but can’t regenerate then maybe the Chameleon Arc could save him since it rewrites the DNA. Maybe it could heal him?

She asks him if he would like to try. She doesn't want him to die even if he has been awful. How much of that was really his fault though? He had been turned into a weapon... maybe this could also be a chance for him to learn to be better? Even if it wouldn't be all him. She mentioned these things to him, He couldn't believe that she'd want to save him much less keep him around. Master agreed with what strength he had. “Make me as me as you can, but take away the bad stuff...I want to- " He faded out, his body still trying to regenerate but failing. She hears something moving the in distance. Maybe it was what did this to Koschei? She hauled him up as best she could and trying to get him in a position she could carry him. This was so much easier when she was man. The sounds got closer and Yas poked her head out the Tardis door to see what was going on. She has been told to stay in the Tardis but now Doctor was happy she Yas had a tendency to only half obey. Doctor went as fast as she could carrying Koschei, meeting up with Yas who had ran out to meet her. " Told you to stay in the Tardis! however I'm SO glad you didn't this time though. Help me get him inside." They both helped carried him to and into the Tardis. After they got in they tried to put him down as gently as they could but he was still sort of dumped onto the floor. Yas was shocked when she saw who it was, not that Doctor had noticed. She was already at the Tardis’ door. The creature that was following them was about where She and Yas had met up now, big, ugly, and clearly visible. Or not, really. It was like a beast shaped hole had been torn into reality, eating all the light that touched it's silhouette. It almost looked like --- 

It was still coming.

Doctor closed the door and yelled for Yas to push a button on the console right as it hit. The Tardis shook from the impact but still managed to take off. Yas looked at her in disbelief but she was already back at Masters side checking to see if he was still alive.

He was, though very weak. After a quick inspection there didn't appear to be any external wounds or anything that might be causing it his condition. He grunted having come to some what, almost managed to ask if it was gone and if she was alright though it didn’t quite come out. "Rest" she whispered as he faded out again. She immediately went to work preparing the Chameleon Arc, already discussing with the Tardis what she wanted done. All completely as if Yas wasn't there, watching in horror as she worked to save the man that nearly killed them all not too long ago.


	2. To the Arc

It didn’t take long for things to be set in motion. A few minutes perhaps, of Doctor having what looked like one sided conversation with herself. The glowing console beeps back occasionally in what seemed to be annoyance. Apparently the sentient machine relented as it let out a note that seems resigned. Doctor took a brief moment to caress the giant golden crystal that sat in the middle of the room, a slight smile on her face. The light grew a little warmer for a second before Doctor was all seriousness again, back to business. She had to save Koschei and there was no telling how much time he had left. And now that she gained the Tardis’ help Doctor would be able to. Maybe. That was the hope at least. He was already so weak. And what was Doctor if not endlessly hopeful? That was the kind of woman she was this time. Honestly that’s the kinda person they’d always been to be honest. And here’s hoping this worked.

She dragged the cables from the console to where the chair and head device had materialized and plugged them in. Doctor then set to work checking everything just to be as certain as she could that nothing would go wrong. She and Tardis had already discussed what Koschei’s wishes were regarding who he wanted to be if this worked and now it was up to this beautiful and willful sentience to see it through. Hopefully her grudge set aside for the time being since this was a chance to save her Doctor from future torment at his hands. But they would see.

“’Yas,” Doctor said, yanking Yasmine back to herself. This whole time she had been watching Doctor move around the room, mesmerized by the fluidness and determined purpose that Doctor carried with her when she had a plan. Also because she was so pretty. Not that she had forgotten Doctor’s murderous friend lying on the ground dying, his breath only slightly raising his chest now.

“Yes! Yeah? What do you need?” She answered as she hurriedly readied herself to be useful. Doctor glided over to Master then knelt beside him.

“What we’re about to do, it’s likely going to be scary for you. You’ve mostly only seen people get shot and other kinds of quick deaths but this-”  
“You’re really going to save him? He’s killed so many people and even pretended to be someone else to- wouldn’t it be better to leave him?”  
Doctor was giving him a once over, her hand resting on Master’s chest for a moment before looking at Yas with the weight of her many, many years ”Yas, do you know how many people I’ve killed? How many civilizations I’ve ended just so that humans would be saved? Let alone everyone and everything else? Yes, I’m going to save him. He didn’t chose to be this way. Very few of us did. And this time, he’s choosing not to be. He just needs some help.” Doctor moved to hoist him up as gently as she could so as to not cause more harm.

He was her responsibility and always would be. They used to be friends. Everything he did was to get her attention or in an attempt to get rid of the rage…  
She’s The Doctor and it was her job to save people when she could. Even him. Especially him. Especially if he actually wants it this time.

Unfortunately she was still tired from having had to drag him across the field. He let out a soft moan when Her grip slipped a bit and she stumbled slightly. Yas got over her shock and helped Doctor by supporting Master’s other side. Doctor looked at Yas and gave her one of her smiles, so happy that Yas chose to help. Yas’ heart thudded harder for a few beats before it chilled out and her face got hot. She was so glad the blushes didn’t show on her face easily. Together they moved him to the chair and strapped him in. It was unlikely he was going to be able to do much thrashing but just in case. Doctor began to place electrodes of the head piece at specific locations on his head. “ Yas, This is going to be sort of shocking to see. This thing, it’s going to rewrite every cell of him. He’s going to be human if he lives through it, and won’t remember being a Timelord or any of the really bad things he’s done. He won’t remember me either. He might scream and thrash and it’s going to look extremely painful, because it is, and it’s going to be very flashy. It’s going to look like torture.” Doctor gently brushes Master’s soft hair away from his forehead to place the last electrode. Master let out a small sigh like he had been holding his breath. “You don’t have to stay for this. You can retreat somewhere else into the Tardis. I’d drop you off back at home with the others but there isn’t time.”

“I’ll stay.”

Doctor looked at her sadly. “Your choice.”

Master made a sound and Doctor turned her attention back to him once more. “Hey,” he tried to say though it came through more through the telepathic link than it came out of lips. What left his lips was more of a whisper. Doctor probably accidentally thought “shut up, you need that energy” because he let out a puff of air like he was trying to laugh. They locked eyes. “ The watch….” I want you to hide it so I can’t find it. Same with my Tardis. Hide them. Make them as impossible to get back as you can. I don’t want them anymore… Doctor was shocked by the extent that he was asking to be rid of his old life. But also with it came the feeling that he was ok with dying either way, he just didn’t want to do it alone. Master was somewhat amused by getting that reaction from her. He’s be more amused if he wasn’t in this pitiful, painful, death-by-draining state though, feeling his cells trying to stop and him willing them to stay alive long enough to see if this would work. Doctor broke eye contact and stroked a bit of his hair, watching the movement carefully. Was she mourning a little?

“What do you want to be called afterwards?.”  
“What’s my name?”  
Doctor almost answered with “Master” since that’s what he seemed to want last time. But it was obviously not that one.  
“Koschei.” She said softly.  
Yeah that one. The last time I remember being happy… before the rage, before the drums, weren’t we happy then?

Some complicated feelings passed through the link and neither were sure who’s was who’s for a moment. But both felt it was time.

Doctor then told the Tardis they were ready. A lever appeared in one of the alcoves of the control room. Doctor went to it and faced her best friend. She was going to watch. Yas followed.

They gave each other a look then Doctor pulled the lever,

———

The lights in the Tardis dimmed immediately. Almost at the same time the glowing crystal in the center of got bright, as did the cables that were attached to the man in the chair. It was almost as if something from the Tardis itself was flowing through the cables. The cables began to buzz then the very air did so too. Hair standing on end. Once the golden glow reached Master the air began to spark around him and then the air was filled with screams with an undertones of energy and strain against metal in the space between. Master then too became light but the screaming didn’t stop and neither did his straining against the restraints. He wasn’t trying to escape, this was just nervous systems’ desperate attempt to flee the thing over loading it and rewriting it.

Yas looked away from the torturous scene to look at Doctor, hoping for reassurance. She didn’t get any. Doctor was still watching but her face had turned to steel, the full weight of her many year once again upon her and all in the service of witnessing the scene and preventing her from ending it early. She seemed both very here but also millions of miles away. Yas had no way of deciphering or even relating to this Doctor. This wasn’t the one she knew. She returned to watching the light show that was Master being rewritten.  


  
  
  


Doctor looked on witnessing the scene. The Link had been cut as soon as the glow had hit Master so her thoughts were once again only hers. Instead of thinking about what she was losing to this process she was remembering her own time in the Arc a few regenerations ago. The pain was indescribably horrible but mostly, right now, her mind drifted to how terrifying this scene actually was. And she had put poor Martha through that without even warning her about this part. Martha was so, so in love with that version of her and back then she was such a cocky, selfish young man. And she put that amazing woman through watching this happen to the love of her life without any warning. What were you doing Ten? Being in pain over Rose really didn’t justify that.

Listening to Master’s screams were awful. Watching his body attempt to escape the overload was wrenching. But it would soon be over. The process didn’t actually take that long, it just felt like forever and was violent. Doctor thought of who this person who used to be her friend was going to be. Who would that be without her? Who was she going to be without him? Should she keep him around? His wishes were to be one of her companions but were they going to be able to do that?

Suddenly the screams stopped. The body sank into the chair. The glow returned back to the central crystal and the usual lights returned back to the control room. Even most of the chaotic energy had left the room now with only the smell of something like ozone remaining. Doctor was pulled back into the present, as was Yas who had gotten sort of hypnotized byt the scene. Doctor solemnly walked to the body of the person that used to be Master, with Yas following close behind. How much of him was going to be in this version she wondered. He looked much worse for wear. His usually unruly-on-purpose-for-style-reasons-hair actually unruly. His clothes were disheveled, with one of his shoes on the floor next to him. His clothes smelled sort of singed but also faintly like regeneration particles. She buried her face into his chest, listening hard to hear how many hearts beat in his chest. It took a moment for it to restart but she could hear the faint beating of a singular heart. It would grow strong as he recovered.

He lived. The plan had worked and his life was saved. Doctor was happy and took a moment to absently comb down the worst of what was Master’s errant locks. She guessed she was allowed to call him Koschei to his face now since that’s who he chose to be. In one fluid motion she glided over to where the watch that contained all that Koschei didn’t want in his life any longer. She pondered it a second, stroking the cold metal surface etched in Gallifreyan, formulating a plan. She looked to Yas.

Yas was looking at Koschei wondering how he lived through that, lost in thought, also trying to figure out what this might mean for the Fam.  
“Yas“  
Yas started, “Yes Doctor?”  
“ It’s going to be hard but I have a job for you, if you would be willing to take it on.”  
“ Anything for you Doctor.”  
“Thank you so much Yas.”


	3. Hollow Planet

Doctor swiftly pocketed the watch and went to the control panel. Some buttons beeped, some lights flashed. Doctor hesitated a moment and then pressed the final button before the Tardis whirred back to activity. Somehow it seemed tired too. “I know sweetie. I’ll let you rest and recharge in a while but right now we don’t really have time for that. Funny how we can time travel yet never seem to have any time. Just hold on for a bit longer. Can you call Mas- Koschei’s Tardis?” she said apologetically to the glowing crystal. A beep in response and some buzzing ensued. The lights stuttered a bit and slightly changed color. “Thanks you’re the greatest! How’s this for a place?” Doctor sent a mental image to her Tardis who then sent it to the Master’s. A mental discussion took place, clearly, since Doctor’s face was changing expression every couple of seconds.

Yas still had no idea what was going on and wondered whether the Doctor had forgotten to tell her what this big job she wanted her to do was. It’s not really like she told anyone anything before they immediately had to do it anyway but usually this would have been that part. Her attention was drawn back to the man lying in the chair, still looking worse for wear but a lot less dead. His color was back and his eyes flickered under his eyelids. “Doctor? What do we do with your friend here since he’s not all fried.”

Apparently the conversation with the machines had ended since the Doctor snapped her attention back to her friends. “Well, I mean, he IS still fried in a way. He did just get his brain rewritten and is recovering from that right now. Brain having to figure out which connections go where, trying to rewire to make the new memories work…” Her eyes drifted down to Koschei and her face softened slightly. “It’s hard and exhausting work to become a new person.”

Yas was a little struck by both the change in Doctor and what she said. “But won’t he wake up soon?”

“Nah. Well, maybe. It takes a lot to go through the arc even when you’re 100% and he went in at something more like 2. It might take him a little while longer to recover than usual BUT he’s also always been incredibly stubborn and hard to kill. He’s so stubborn he rarely stays dead either if something does manage it. Always up, always moving, always getting into trouble and dragging me in with, always following me and trying his best to get me to look at him.” Her expression changed again to one Yas couldn’t quite read. “But also that may not be true anymore.” She looked to Yas again, back to hiding the vulnerable parts of herself. “But also maybe not! I’m sure he’ll come back soon though. Soon enough that we have to get a shift on.” Doctor then pulled a lever on the console for emphasis and the Tardis began to teleport. It was a slightly rockier trip than usual.

“Why are we vibrating so much?” Yas asked while holding on to the console fearing the motion of the Tardis would knock her over.

“We’re towing his Tardis to the place where it’s going to retire, if all goes to plan.”

“What IS the plan?”

“Oh right. Didn’t tell you. Well we’re going to hide that Tardis in an extremely hard to get to place. And we’re going to hide this watch there too. Koschei doesn’t want it anymore and that Tardis is perfectly happy with a liquid retirement.”

“Koschei?”

The Tardis landed hard onto some sort of surface. The impact was enough to nearly make both Doctor and Yas lose their grip on the console and managed to dislodge Koschei somewhat, though he still stayed seated. “We’re here!” doctor excitedly declared.  
__

Doctor was in motion not a second after The Tardis stopped moving. First she went to Koschei, with Yas moving to make way for her, arranging him so he had more dignity than looking drunk and slumped over. Second, she motioned for Yas to follow her, then she was out the door with Yas following closely behind.

They stepped out into a glittering cavern of what looked like quartz crystals and hard stone. They were lucky enough to have landed on a relatively flat rock formation that, if they looked around, they would see was a rare thing, as most of the structures here were angled spires of crystal formations. They were momentarily distracted by the bouncing, ever-shifting lights until something more interesting caught their eye. At the end of the plateau a house landed. It was quite the odd sight until it turned into light and its form changed into something more like a leafless tree. Yas looked to the Doctor for an explanation. 

“Wow, they really picked a great place for that one to retire huh? VERY pretty.” She eyed Yas and started walking towards the newly-shifted structure. Yas once again followed, their footsteps crunching on the somewhat sandy ground, the sound echoing. “Tardis can actually change their shape to blend into where they land. That’s why that one was a house when we were in there last and just now. Actually, my Tardis’s Chameleon Circuit has been broken for quite some time. That’s why she always looks like a police box. Such a cute police box though.” She considered a moment. “This one seems to have chosen a different form for itself though. I don’t see anything that matches it. Theoretically it would have turned into one of the those crystal spires.” She then dramatically turned around in a circle with her arms wide, her light gray jacket slightly billowing billowing behind, still moving forward, “I would just love to explore this place. The crystals aren't actually made of silicates,” they reached the Tardis-tree and the Doctor looked up, “the light is being produced by a colony of some sort of creature up on the roof of the cavern, there’s something living below us in the crystal groves. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the rock here is a little different than your earth sandstone, and so is the gravity actually. Ever so slightly. Quite the place to explore if we had time. However, this place is due to fill up with some sort of thick acidic liquid soon.”

“Wait it’s going to fill up with ACID? In how long?”

Doctor looked through the “branches” of the Tardis-tree, then ran her hand on the rough surface of what could be presumed to be the door. Then she licked it. Yas made a face then touched the surface too, because might as well. Doctor continued excitedly, “Coral! Of course! You didn’t want to be a Tardis anyway so you picked what you thought you would have looked like if they had just let you live. I’m happy for you! Anyway could you let us in?” The door cracked open and they went in. “Thank you.”

The door closed behind them. The inside looked very different than it had when they were last in there. The entire inside was just coral and wood. Gone were the comforts of a house and all the haphazardly scattered papers, books, and abandoned half empty tea mugs that characterized the false life of O. In its place was just a wood floor and coral of different colors twisting into patterns on the ceiling. The walls lacked the coral patterns but instead had swirling gold tendrils weaving their way in beautiful, flowing, but chaotic lines. The lines met and separated, knotted and untied, split and united, not beginning or end, just duality. The gold tendrils also glittered and were dotted with tiny specks of light. Where the lines met and knotted, slightly bigger lights glowed. In the center of the room was a single hourglass shaped column. It lacked a real console but all the controlling bits, buttons, bobbs, and lights were all embedded on the lower half of the hour glass shape. Where the waist of the hourglass would have been was a floating spiky ball of crystal, seemingly suspended by rotating halos of metal, etched in something that may have been words.

Doctor went straight to what passed for the console and popped the watch into a hole that had suddenly appeared for it. It disappeared as quickly as it had come, taking the watch with it. Yas watched this happen from beside the door, not trusting this ship enough to go further in but also not being able to stop herself from admiring it. Also she was still thinking about acid flooding the cavern outside. Doctor complimented the Tardis on its redecoration and both the crystal and the etching glowed in answer. She couldn’t read the writings, as there were some things even her Tardis didn’t know.

“Yas, I need you to come here. This will be part of your mission.”

Yas complied.

Doctor motioned to a smooth part of the coral-console, “Put your hand here.”

Yas did as she was asked. She gave Doctor another questioning look. A light glowed under her hand and she retracted it.

“It’s storing your DNA signature, in case you ever have to come back.” Doctor turned to look Yas in eyes. “I’m putting you in charge of guarding the parts of Koschei that made him The Master. His Timelordiness,” She gestured with her hand “all stored in that watch, which is now stored deep inside this Tardis. I need you to remember the phrase ‘it is such a secret place, the land of tears.’ This is a password that along with your DNA signature will tell this Tardis that it really is you and what you are after. In case someone tries either your DNA or the password alone. You’re going to need both and I need you to not tell anyone. Not even me.”

“Why not even you, Doctor? You’re right here?”

“I’m going to erase my memory of this place, its location, what’s hidden here, everything. Even that you know. I won’t remember anything between finding out Koschei survived and the moment I erase my memory.”

Yas frowned for a moment, the gravity of what was being asked of her sinking in.

“I know it’s a big ask but you’re the only one I trust to do it.”

Yas’s face grew hot. She will do this mission and she wouldn’t let the Doctor down. “You can count on me, Doctor.”

“I knew I could!” Doctor thanked the Tardis and briskly walked to and then out of the door, heading back to her Tardis with purpose. Yas told the Tardis to have a nice retirement before leaving and trying to catch up to the Doctor. “Now we gotta get out of here before that acid comes in. From what they told me this place is only this dry for about an hour every 1000 years. Something to do with its moons orbits aligning or something, pulling all of the liquid-plasma-y stuff to the surface. This would probably be a good time to tell you we’re actually in the core of a planet right now.” Yas didn’t have time to be surprised as she was just trying to keep up.

Back on The Tardis, the Doctor glanced at Koschei and once more went straight for the console and put some coordinates in. As soon as Yas closed the door she went to the console. She too glaced at Koschei who was clearly much stronger than he was when they left him, before steadying herself at the console, expecting a possibly bumpy ride again. Doctor pushed the button and they were once again parked in Sheffield in moments, at the same place and about 10 minutes later than when Doctor launched to go answer the Master’s distress call. The ride was just as smooth as ever.

“Ok we’re back where we started! Good old Sheffield,” the Doctor announced. “You can go visit your family again if you want. I'll call when we’re ready to take off again. But before you go, if you do, I need you to remember another phrase.”

Yas nodded, frowning slightly.

“ ‘Watch out for the baobabs.’ This is another password of sorts to unlock the memory of the location and time of that place for my Tardis here. I’m going to ask her to encrypt the location and other information about that place too so neither of us can remember it. It’ll be completely up to you whether Koschei ever gets back to the way he was. Got it?”

Yas nodded again.

“Thank you again so much Yas, You’re amazing. You can stay here while I erase my memory or you can go home and come back later once everyone else is here if you want, so you don’t have to explain why there’s a new person here, why does he look that that guy who tried to kill you all, and why did we go on an adventure without them. I’ll do the lying. Or try to anyway.”

“I’ll stay.”

“Alright. See you in a minute.” Doctor put her hand on the console once more. The lights dimmed and came back up again. The deed was done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to QU who both read an entire book to get me quotes AND proofread/quality checked for me!


	4. Reality Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to QU for copy editing for me! What is even a comma anyway?

The Doctor was a little dazed at first, but the light soon came back to her eyes. 

“Oh man, I feel like I might have lost some time there.” She looked over to Yaz. “Did I?” 

Yaz started at the question, seeing as the Doctor had just asked her to not tell her about anything that had just happened, almost stuttering some sort of something. It didn't matter though. The Doctor had already moved on.

“Eh, wouldn’t be the first time. Can’t really be doing this as long as I have without occasionally losing track of your time sometimes. Lost my memory of a whole planet once. Might have been a couple weeks? I was with Jack that time and when I came to I was at the bottom of a well on a sparsely populated moon with him, a Lathinir, too many blanolds and broken glass. I don’t know how Jack ends up involved in so many of the ones I can’t remember.”

A soft groan from Koschei brought the Doctor's memory of the situation instantly back to her. She urgently moved to the man’s side then proceeded to release him from his restraints. One by one she released his ankles, then his wrists from their bonds.

“Doctor,” Yaz whispered, trying to warn her, but the Doctor couldn’t hear it. Just as the Doctor released the last of the man’s bindings, she felt fingers gliding through a section of her hair. Somewhat startled, she shot up meeting the-man-that-was-once-her-friend eye-to-eye. 

“Hey. You smell good,” he said groggily through a grin and sparkling dark eyes. Doctor started, not sure what to say to that. She quickly recovered and grinned at him. Despite his name and this very in character interaction, this was a new person. There was no telling how much of her friend made it into them. This wasn’t her friend. But hopefully soon he would be a friend.

“Well you don’t seem fully awake yet. Good morning!”

He chuckled at the split second of hesitation and recovery he caught her doing. She was already removing the Arcs head piece from his head. 

“Awake enough to greet the gorgeous lady I woke up to. Also enough to know I’ve got a splitting headache and don’t know who you or your friend over there are.” He looked up at the Doctor and then at the thing in her hands that she had just removed from him, his expression turning inquisitive.

“Oh, RIGHT, yeah you wouldn’t remember us after all this. Well, this,” the Doctor gestured to Yaz, “is Yasmin Khan, my right hand human in this current situation. She’s smart, dependable and a bit rebellious.'' Yasmin nodded, quite enjoying the sudden compliments. Koschei nodded back. The Doctor stood up and gestured at herself. “And I am the Doctor. I like custard cremes, inventions, running, and adventure, which also includes a lot of running most of the time.” 

She waited for the inevitable “Doctor Who?” question, but it didn’t come. Koschei just kind of stared at her half groggy, rubbing his head--which messed up his hair--and wondering what exactly she was waiting for. He was just too used to code names for that question. If she said she was the Doctor then that’s who she was. The Doctor pouted, disappointed that she didn’t get to do the familiar dance of questions. She really did enjoy showing off. Oh well. The Doctor started digging around in her pockets. She had a lot of them.

Yaz spoke up. She was somewhat anxious about talking to this man since he did attempt to kill them and Doctor. Also pretended to be someone else before. Someone really nice and she had thought they could be friends maybe back then. But you know, kind of manufacturing a little terrorism has a high probability of putting a damper on that sort of thing. And trust. But the Doctor did say this guy was human now and wouldn’t remember all that. “So do you remember anything? Anything at all about yourself or how you got here?” He eyed her.

“No, I don’t remember how I got here or why, other than I feel like I got hit by a train.” He looked down at his feet, finally noticing why one of his feet was so much colder than the other. He kicked off the remaining one shoe so at least they’d be even now. “How about you guys tell me why I’m here and seem to have been strapped to a chair, first. Not that I'm complaining, waking up to the Doctor over there wasn’t so bad.” He attempted to get out of the chair but quickly got dizzy and fell right back into it, his already aching head hitting the cushioned headrest hard, knocking the wind back out of him.

At that same moment the Doctor, after rooting through several of her pockets, found the thing she had been looking for. “FOUND IT!” she cheered and, having moved a few steps away during her pocket-searching-flailing, crossed back to Koschei. Both Yaz and Koschei looked at her with fond but blank expressions. She raised her eyebrow. “Don’t look at me like that. Here, take this. It’ll help with your headache.” She offered a slim, flexible, semi-translucent strip of something of an indescribable color. It sort of looked like candy. “Don’t worry, I just unwrapped it. You’re going to have to eat it quickly before it loses potency though.”

Koschei eyed it suspiciously before deciding that 1) If they wanted him dead they would have done it already. Plus they didn’t look like the killing-on-purpose-type and 2) if it was poisoned at least he wouldn’t have this headache anymore. It felt like it was literally smoldering the very core of his brain yet also trying to thud out of his brain case. He popped in his mouth. There were immediate fireworks in his face. Kind of like Pop Rocks x100 and tasted… glittery? Glittery colors?

“Ok so, you’re going to have to hold your breath for a minute. Well, not exhaling anyway. Keep your breath in! About 45 seconds in it’s going to start tasting and feeling like you just swallowed fire and once a minute is up it’ll all suddenly disappear and so will the headache.”

“Maybe that would have been a good thing to tell him before he ate it?” Yaz chided.

“Well I was expecting him to need far more convincing than that, seeing as he didn’t want to tell us his story outright. He just kind of made his decision super quick and down the hatch it went. Besides, If I had told him he would have taken a big breath and not have been able to keep all that air in for that long.” The Doctor looked back at Koschei. “How are you holding up? Oh wait, Don’t Answer that. It hasn’t been a minute yet. However the burny part should be happening very soon. You’re almost there!”

Her prediction was right on the nose. As soon as she finished that line the burning sensation began. It was extremely burny but more in the way of having poured a whole bottle of menthol in his mouth. Well, at least at first. It soon quickly felt like he had attempted to swallow dry ice, vapor and all. Unbidden tears started leaking out of his eyes from the sheer effort of trying to hold his breath through all of the sensations happening. Thank goodness he was allowed to take new air in. The Doctor was so right about that. He wouldn’t have been able to hold a whole breath in this long with so much happening. Also that as the medicine dissolved it was actually creating some vapor that he had to hold in. Still would have been nice to know before he ate it. What would’ve happened if he had let his breath out? He clenched his hands, his chest shivered from the want to exhale.

“You’re done! You can let it out now!” and he did. She wasn’t kidding when she said it would all be instantly gone. As soon as he exhaled it felt like every bit of weariness and physical pain got sucked into his lungs and then released with that breath. Including the headache.

“What was that?” he looked at the Doctor in amazement.

“Oh that? It’s just a stash of wild painkillers I picked up somewhere. Nicked it off a guard one time when I was arrested in a different place and time. That happens a lot actually. Comes in handy when I remember that I have it and can actually find it. I leave most of it here. But, I also don’t think I have much more left? Or any?”

“Well it worked wonders. I feel great!” He sprung up from the chair.

“Still try to take it easy. You might feel great now but that rush on energy you’re feeling right now is temporary. It was a wartime drug,” the Doctor cautioned, continuing to watch Koschei’s reactions with interest, studying him.

He was suddenly very aware again of his lack of shoes when his socks offered little protection from the coolness of the Tardis’s floor. It brought his attention to the rest of what he was wearing, as he readjusted his clothing to look a little better in his new position. It didn’t work so great. Why did he smell so charred? Why so many holes? Almost so dirty like he’d been rolling around in grass and mud? Maybe he had been?

Yaz interjected. “So Doctor, we were talking about how he got here while you were digging around for the medicine.”

“Oh right. That. Well, do you remember anything?”

He spun around on his heel to face them while also still inspecting his clothes. So still slightly dramatic it seems. “As to what caused me to be in this exact place and time smelling like a piece of toast left in the toaster too long, I don’t.”

“Oh, well, that’s understandable. We found you in such a terrible condition that we had to put to you in this device here to save you. You were quite literally about to be dead. The permanent kind. So we dragged you back here, hooked you up and turned it on. I did ask first if you wanted to, though, and you agreed. It’s not exactly an easy or painless treatment but it seems to have done the job. One of the side effects is memory loss though, as the treatment is traumatic enough for the patient to have to be restrained. I mean, in order to save you, my ship here and that device literally had to put your cells back together. That’s also why you’re a tiny bit fried but seem otherwise ok. You ARE ok right? Wait you wouldn’t know, you just had some painkillers. Have the bruises come in yet? I don’t know if they will but they might. You did still thrash a little after the main process was done.”

Yaz nearly balked at how much truth the Doctor had just told the man. She basically told him most of what actually happened but leaving out the important parts like how they are, were, really old friends and that he called them there to save him presumably, that he was literally a different species not 3 hours ago, had a time traveling spaceship of his own. And obviously the stuff only Yaz now remembered. She did manage to keep most of her reaction to herself though.

“Wait all this was because of the treatment?” Koschei gestured to his mud and grass stained clothes, that upon further inspection actually had some tears and holes in them. “Also, ship? We’re on a ship?”

“No no, some of that you came in here with. We found you outside in a field being hunted down by… something. A big, terrible, terrifying, fascinating, beautiful Something. I have no idea why you were there though. Just that we ran across you and picked you up. We’re only responsible for the burnt parts and the ozone-like smell.”

Made about as much sense to Koschei as anything that had happened so far, he supposed, however, “We’re in a ship? But you rescued me on land?”

The Doctor loved this part, though was slightly disappointed that she wasn’t going to do the whole skit. She couldn’t help but grin at him though. “Yeah, a ship of sorts. She travels time and space. And what a lovely ship she is too!” The crystal in the control panel glowed brighter for a split second at this point. The Tardis did so love to be complimented. The Doctor continued, “Can you tell us anything you remember about yourself? Anything at all? I want to see just how bad the memory loss might be.”

“Wait it, she, travels TIME AND SPACE?” Koschei looked around the control room in wonder. The knowledge felt right. It wasn’t an uncomfortable thought to be in a thing that could do such a thing but it wasn’t supposed to be possible. Humans have only been able to send people up as far as the moon and everything else had been robots only out as far as the edges of our own solar system. But this thing could travel time and space? How?

“Yeah she does! Hopefully you’ll get to see her in action, if you want.” Cocked an eyebrow at him, still grinning widely watching him take in the control room and turning around in slow circles. Yaz couldn’t help but smile too, remembering when that was new to her as well. Wait, did she just invite him to go with them? Not that she hadn’t implied that she was going to do so at some point.

Koschei didn’t get to fully process the invitation, as shocked as he was by it and whether it was real or not, as the Doctor reiterated her question. “So do you remember anything? Your name, what you were doing before you woke up, anything?”

He tried to remember and while the memories were there, everything was sort of foggy. Also he was tired of smelling like burnt wool and ozone. “Not to change the subject, but would it be possible to get a change of clothes? The smell is kind of distracting… My memory is kind of foggy right now and I’m wondering how much of that is that head thing, that candy, or me being distracted by… this” he gestured to himself again.

“Oh, OH, yeah sure!” The Doctor sprung back into action, her normal bouncy self. She was excited to show off her Tardis, as she always was. “Let me show you to the bathing rooms and the wardrobe! Follow me! But first, what should we call you?” she asked, already heading to the door that led from the control room to the other rooms in the Tardis, already knowing what the answer should be. Koschei followed close behind, almost beside her. Yaz brought up the rear, thinking that if he suddenly tried something, she’d have a good chance of tackling him, if need be. 

“Koschei. May have had a code name of some sort but I don’t rightly remember it at the moment. Seems kind of trivial now that space and time travel are real and I’m currently in a spaceship, probably in space.”

There was a slight hesitation, “Koschei… that’s such a nice name.” Her voice hinting at an unexpected tenderness when she said his name, her expression also betraying an unreadable fondness for a fraction of a moment before the facade was back in place. Koschei saw it, though, and he felt a twinge in his heart, though not sure why or what that was or how to feel about the vague feeling. Yaz also heard it and she felt something too. “Well Koschei, you’re actually in a Tardis parked in Sheffield, but don’t let that dull your excitement. Sheffield is a great place too. Come on, we’ll get you all cleaned up and in new clothes. Then if you’re feeling up to it you can tell us what else you remember, if you want.”

“Thanks,” he responded, slightly quieter than intended. He matched steps with her and almost overshot when she stopped suddenly and opened a door.

“Here’s one of the bathing room lobbies. You’ve got showers, tubs, water jets, a waterfall, steam jets, and other perhaps more novel ways of getting clean in there. When you’re done there will be a door you will suddenly notice. It’ll take you to a passage that leads to the wardrobe room. Just dump your old clothes in the chute on the way in and they’ll be there for you on laundry day… probably. Believe it or not we still have to do our own laundry. But anyway, it’ll take you through the steps of getting dressed. Undergarments, to outer garments to accessories and all that. We’ll wait for you in the last part of the wardrobe room. You’ll hopefully be dressed by then. See you in a bit!” she said and left him to it heading down the corridor.

Yaz held back momentarily. “Hey, just a tip so you don’t get lost in here. Don’t know how much you’ll need it though. The room layouts seem to respond to brain patterns, so if you think hard enough and concentrate hard enough you’ll probably get to where you need to go. Try to not get distracted when you open a door though because you might end up somewhere you didn’t intend and the Doctor will have to go find you. It’s happened to me once or twice and I’ve ended up in… places…I wasn’t supposed to before and the Doctor had to come get me.” She glanced at the Doctor still making her way to whatever door was going to end up being the correct door. “I also don’t think she knows how this place works for people who aren’t her. It works for her every time, probably because she’s most connected to the Tardis. We try to stick with her when we go anywhere but our rooms, the bathrooms, and the console room so we know for sure where we’re going.” Yaz looked to the Doctor again to find out that she was waiting for her. “Ok gotta go. Good luck.” 

Yaz left to go join the Doctor. Koschei stood there in the doorway, watching down the hall as the Doctor opened the door for Yaz and waved at him before entering the room herself. He was now left to navigate this mini adventure alone.

_____

Not that it was a terribly exciting adventure. He didn’t really think about how he wanted to get clean, other than he just wanted to be clean, and opened the first door he came across. The steamy, humid room contained an in-ground heated tub that was large enough to comfortably fit 15 people and fairly deep. It was pretty basic, but had some tiling on the edges of the tub, both inside and outside. He imagined this wasn’t called for him but was left over from when someone else had called it up, but it would more than serve his needs. Which at this point was a good scrub and a soak. Luckily the things required for that goal were already available in built-in tub-side push pumps every 10ish feet, and a row of various cleansing scrubbers hung on the wall. 

Koschei picked one and proceeded to the tub. He deftly stripped off his clothes and cast them aside, then slid a foot into the water to test the temperature. The sudden heat sent a wave of his hair standing on end. The perfect amount of hot for a soak and scrub. It didn’t take long before he was all the way in, letting the heat sink into his bones.

He let his mind wander to the events of the last few hours. The whole “waking up to a lady with soft hair who calls herself the Doctor who smelled great and her suspicious yet still surprisingly friendly friend in a time and space traveling spaceship” thing. That apparently was sentient. And could read thoughts. And rearrange huge numbers of places and portals on a whim. This place where he was was HUGE, and there were a good ten or more doors in the same place this one was found, and they kept adding “s” to the end of all the room types implying there were even MORE. Just how big was this place? Like Star Trek big? Star Wars/Death Star big? Bigger? With all these rooms was it a colony ship of some sort? He’d always imagined space travel would look more like it did in Firefly, and maybe it had for these people at some point, but this? How can a place this big travel both time AND space? Scientists had pretty much ruled out that time could be a thing that could be traveled, and any space travel out of the solar system would take a prohibitively long time, sans attempting something like generation ships, which were potentially hard on the human psyche. Though there were secret projects by governments he knew were doing just that, since humans seemed pretty set on wrecking the planet they grew up on. Just why did he know that though?

He slipped further into the hot water, up to his nose now, hot water making his stubble bristle. He was honestly surprised it survived whatever fireworks he had just lived through. 

What was the deal with the Doctor, though? She knew so much and seemed so confident about it. She saved his life without even knowing him and so far had been spot-on about everything she’d said as far as he could tell. What was up with that reaction to his name, though? As far as he knew they’d never met each other before so that sort of reaction was quite mysterious. She was clearly trying to hold something back. Maybe she knew someone in the future with that name and/or it was a much more common name in the future and that reaction was about them rather than him. Still, quite surprising the reaction that reaction got out of him though, a twinge in the heart and feeling ever so slightly fuzzy. Had to be the treatment or the pain medicine she gave him though. He didn’t know her. They literally just met, though he would like the chance to know her and her friends better. And it sounded like he might just get to?

The heat worked its way into his bones and joints relaxing some aches that he knew were there and might feel later once the painkillers wore off. Felt nice.

He wondered how far in time the two were from. The one called Yasmin Khan seemed to be pretty modern to his own time, though younger than him. The Doctor seemed kind of timeless though. Perhaps only one of them was from a different time or cared to look the part? She had smelled good. Something about her touch made it seem like she was restrained, or maybe not allowed to to cross a boundary she was crossing? Touch starved perhaps? That still a thing in a future like they might be from? What if she was an alien. Is that a thing for humanoid aliens too? Do aliens come in humanoid?

He completely submerged himself at this point, even running his hands through his thick hair to make sure every bit of it got wet. Time to get to business. He surfaced again and got some shampoo from the dispenser. He absentmindedly worked it through his hair. Whatever it was smelled of was good, though he couldn’t quite place it. Rinse. Conditioner.

They could, he supposed if they existed at all, which now seemed like a much more real possibility than it did only short while ago. But see it to believe it and all that. If they did exist and were on earth, he didn’t really have much knowledge about it. Even though he was in intelligence, he was pretty low level. Mostly he was put on research jobs where he followed people around both on the internet or in person so he’d be able to track their social networks and report to higher ups if they or their contacts did anything of interest. Or just regular research actually. The last thing he remembered working on was investigating where some tech from a newly popular social media site may have come from. Not that that sort of thing wasn’t an unusual task for him either. They did give him mysterious things to backwards engineer without much context of where it came from or anything sometimes. Much else was way above his pay grade and probably loyalty level.

This steamy bath seemed to be doing wonders for his foggy brain. Time for a scrub while the conditioner sat a minute. He took his chosen scrubber, drizzled it with soap that was labeled “bath gel” that shared the same pleasant but unidentifiable smell as the other two products, left the tub and went to work scrubbing everything that needed scrubbing.

Oh yeah, he had a rebel streak. However, it was his job to know things, and his agency really did go out of their way to make sure he didn’t know anything he didn’t need to know for the things that were asked of him. It was his job to know those things after all, and he was good at finding out those things. He trained most of his life for it, and higher level things if need be, since he absolutely was capable of them. And they put him on those sorts of jobs occasionally. Perhaps he was on one of them when he was picked up by the Doctor and her friend? He was a really smart guy though, just tended to do things the way he wanted, and not always listen if he thought the order was stupid. So they mostly kept him on research and intelligence. He was good at that too though. Competitive and charming. At least he thought he was that last one.

He slid back into the tub to rinse all the soap off. He dunked his head underwater to get the conditioner out of his hair.

He still didn’t remember what he was doing right before he woke up in that chair though. Seeing how much good this bath did him in terms of restoring his memory though, maybe it would come back in time? Doctor didn’t say that the loss was permanent, but she also didn’t say that it was temporary either.

The bath reaching its conclusion, he left the tub, got one of the very fluffy towels from the towel rack and dried himself off. He gathered his discarded clothing from the floor and brought them with him as he approached the door on the opposite end of the one he had entered from.

Once there, he took Yaz’s advice and willed it to be the right room. And luckily when he opened the door all he saw was rows and rows of clothing, though this being the first room it was mostly undergarments. He was glad that it was the right room.

—

In the mirror room, Doctor and Yaz waited patiently for Koschei to show up. Well, about as patiently as they could wait, anyway. Doctor never was that great at waiting unless they were taking a nap and Thirteen even less so than her past regenerations. She took her anticipation out on looking at the clothing and accessories she’d collected over the years that were sitting on shelves or hung up on racks. Since there wasn’t anything that needed doing, Yaz just leaned on one of the clutter-free spaces on one of the walls, watching Doctor do her thing, which at the moment was trying on a wide brim felt hat. It looked very fashionable for today, but something told Yaz that it absolutely wasn't when she’d squirreled it away.

“I was so cool when I wore this. But then I’m always cool. Was a lot taller and bushier back then though. A Lot taller. A Lot bushier. Good times. Long time ago,” the Doctor babbled at herself, before placing the hat back to its stand and proceeding to go play with some sunglasses she’d presumably forgotten she had.

“Hey Doctor, what was up with you telling… Koschei? Almost the whole story. And not even a fake version either, you pretty much told him what actually happened.”

The Doctor was rummaging around in one of her pockets now and suddenly pulled out a pair of 2020 New Year glasses. One of those ridiculous ones that look like blinds. She popped them on her face and looked at Yaz somewhat seriously. “The best way to lie and have it be believed is to stick to the truth as much as possible. Also it helps keep your mouth in time with your brain if that’s a problem with you. It is for me. My face can’t always keep up with my brain. When you got yourself and 12-13 other people who are also you and in there, it’s kind of hard to keep track of who’s saying what and keep yourself in order sometimes. Easier to stick to what is true sometimes. But hey, can’t really talk about that. If Koschei is anything like the person he used to be, and that is kind of what he asked for, then he’ll catch us talking about it and ask questions, so better not, alright? Not when he’s so close. But hey, how do I look?” She struck a pose.

“Ridiculous.” Also WHOA 12-13 other lives in there?

The Doctor chuckled and put the glasses on a shelf with some other ridiculous glasses. She was about to pick up some other ones when she heard some rustling around the corner in another part of the room. Of course she went to investigate, it was likely Koschei.

—

Koschei was mostly dressed, and was now looking for the coat room. He was warm enough in what he had, but you never knew when the weather would change. Or if you’d get whisked away by a blond time traveler. It happens. He selected some jackets, once he found some, and headed to the overly-fancy old mirror he’d just spotted to try them on.

He looked at his reflection first to make sure that what he’d selected wasn't accidentally atrocious, as this was the first full mirror he’d come across so far. Though now that he reached this one, it was clear that there were some others around this room that caught different angles and distances. So that the person using them could make sure they looked good at any and every angle, no doubt.

He’d liked the clothes he’d been wearing before, but wondered what kind of mission had he been on that required him to look so flashy. A plaid suit wasn’t exactly discreet, though it did look pretty cool. This time though, it was maybe a better idea to not go so flashy as he didn’t know what kind of environment he was going into. Thus he was happy with his jeans, his blue button up shirt with a collar, and a wide scoop neck purple cable knit sweater on top. On his feet there were some smart-looking but utilitarian boots and, not that you could see them, some fun socks. He held a couple of his acquisitions up to himself in the mirror and ultimately decided that they wouldn’t do. He tried on the third in hopes that it would work, but ultimately he rejected it too. There was a rustling behind him and he shifted slightly so he could see what or who was making the noise.

“Try this one?” Doctor said to Koschei as she plucked a leather jacket from a rack and turned so that her back was no longer to him.

“Sure!”

He watched her in the mirror until she was almost to him, then she stopped, keeping her distance. He turned around.

“Not exactly what I thought you’d pick based on your previous outfit, but this looks great too.” She smiled at him, offering him the jacket she’d selected.

He grinned back, taking the jacket. “Thanks, I think?” He tried it on. It was well-made and fit him perfectly. Awww. “Wow, you really got an eye for this sort of thing, huh? How do I look?”

“Still great, though maybe you should check it out yourself.”

And he did and she was right, he really did look great. He could see in the mirror that some of that fondness from earlier had crept back into her eyes and smile. She noticed and wiped it away leaving a much less complex expression. It was still pretty great to be smiled at though.

“Guess it’ll do.”

“So do you remember anything from before?”

“Well yeah, some things. The steam really put my head to rights.”

The Doctor nodded. That was part of the instructions she’d left Martha with when she’d gone through this as Ten. Except from what she told him, tea did the trick. Inhaled steam is steam, she supposed.

“I remember that I worked in intelligence, went to school from a young age for it, though I stayed low-level so far due to attitude problems. They still send me on higher tier missions sometimes though, when they’re short personnel or can’t find any one capable enough. I remember some of my previous missions but for the life of me I can’t remember what I was doing when you found me, why I was there, or why I was so flashy, despite it looking pretty cool.” He checked out some of the other mirrors that were aimed at him from this angle. He looked pretty cool right now too. Except his hair.

“Well it’s good to hear that so much of your memory has returned. I was afraid that much more than the very short term stuff may have gotten lost. Though I see you completely missed the automatic instant dryer on the way out of the bath.”

Koschei huffed at the knowledge that there was an automatic dryer, and that he needn’t to do all this in the process of drying. Too late now, he supposed. Next time. If there was one.

She went to the fancy mirror and pushed what looked like a hidden button somewhere and one of the swirly sections popped out to reveal it was a hidden door. The Doctor pulled out a comb and handed it to Koschei, taking care to not touch him. She was close enough to smell him though, and she could tell what the unidentifiable scent the soap was that Koschei couldn’t place. It was a fruit from Gallifrey that they used to steal from the orchards around the school sometimes when they were students. They were a shared favorite. She kept her smile inside this time, knowing he might be watching and she thought he was already suspicious enough with her friendliness. She was really going to have to conduct herself better. This wasn’t the same Koschei. But then, if it was, she’d more likely be scowling, because what else did he do to get her attention.

He took the comb and started to preen, setting his damp hair back the way he liked it, or would once it was dry. “Scruff has never really been too much of a thing on my own face, but one of my former companions left these things here a long time ago. You’re free to use them if you like.” Another hint she wanted him to stay?

There was a bell that chimed throughout the rooms. It instantly got her attention. “I’m being called elsewhere. The rest of The Fam has arrived I suspect. Yaz will lead you back to the console room. She doesn’t usually get lost in here, probably the least of everyone.” She turned, her hair and jacket flowing behind her trying to keep up, and strided out of the room. Presumably Yaz had heard what she’d been volunteered to do, as she was now standing in the middle of the walkway, not two feet from where she’d been before.

“Come on. If you’re done playing dress-up, it’s time to get going.” She motioned for him to follow her. At the door she said, “Remember what I said before? Try to will the door to send you to the console room, that’s the one you woke up in. It’ll probably work if the one who touches the door is the one doing the thinking but better safe than sorry. And lost. Here we go.” She opened the door and it, thankfully, led to the console room, softly lit in orange and teal as usual. They entered just as the Doctor closed the Tardis door behind her.


	5. Another One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to QU who again proofread for me!

The Doctor found herself nearly sandwiched between the Tardis door and Ryan and Graham. They looked at her quizzically. After a moment of awkwardly staring each other down, Graham spoke up as they backed up to a more comfortable distance.

“Nice to see you Doc! Wasn’t expecting to meet you outside like this. We just got back from lunch.” He eyed the door, slightly shifting his weight as if he was expecting to be let in at any moment. “Is something wrong, Doc? You look a little…?”

“Frazzled?” Ryan chimed in next to him.

“Yeah that,” he said gesturing to Ryan and then to the Doctor before putting his hand back at his side.

“Nah I always look like this, haven’t you noticed? With all the daring adventures we go on it’s only natural that I look perpetually frazzled, there’s always so much to do and so much of it is time sensitive—” Doctor tried to explain.

Ryan eyed her incredulously, calling her bluff. “Then why are you guarding the door like that? You trying to hide something?”

Doctor’s hand tightened on the handle of the Tardis door behind her back. “I’m not hiding anything—”

“Then why’re you acting like you accidentally caught the kitchen on fire and then flooded the kitchen trying to put it out and are trying to stop your mum from finding out?”

Graham and the Doctor looked at each other then and at Ryan. Ryan looked back at them. “What? I’m not the one trying to hide stuff here.”

Attention was back on the Doctor. “I’m not trying to hide anything.” She released the door handle but continued to guard the door, shifting her weight to match Graham when he subtly shifted even more in anticipation to get in the Tardis. After that he returned to a more neutral position, clearly none of the posturing was conscious.

“Were you planning on leaving us behind, Doctor?” Ryan asked, bracing to be told the adventure was over.

The Doctor relaxed a bit. “No no no, Ryan, why would I do that to my Fam? I wouldn’t kick you out unless you wanted to stay or you would literally die if you walked in there. In which case you guys would help me fix it as much as you’re able, right? Noooo, I just… wanted to head you guys off and warn you about a recent development.”

“So we are going to die if we walk in there,” Graham added.

“NO, I mean, probably not. The world is full of uncertainties and you humans are kind of fragile but no, not that.” She took a breath and composed herself, trying to come up with a way to tell them about Koschei, why he looked like the guy who tried to kill them, and how much of the truth, if not all of it, to tell them. The brightness of the sunny day and glare from the light bouncing back up from the concrete was suddenly very distracting. She was not a talented liar and never really had been. So some of the truth it was.

“Well, I’d figure I’d warn you that there’s another person in there right now. We got a distress call and me and Yaz went to go answer it, found a man who was about to die, helped him out, and now he’s in the Tardis.”

Ryan frowned. Graham spoke up. “Aye, but Doc, that’s not so odd. We do that sort of thing all the time. Why the secrecy?”

“Weeeeellll it’s what, who, he looks like.”

“Why, has he got two heads?”

She leaned against the door, still not making way for them to get in. “Well no, but it still might be quite the shock and I need you guys to keep it to yourselves when you see him, ok? He’s already confused enough as it is and—”

The door opened unexpectedly and the Doctor stumbled backwards into Koschei who quickly caught her before she fell.

“Don’t—” Yaz’s voice could be heard from behind the man. It was too late already though.

They looked at each other until they realized what had happened.

“Hi again,” he said, looking down at her with a smirk. “We seem to be doing this a lot today.”

“Seems so,” she said somewhat flatly, trying to hold back her own surprise at suddenly being face to face with Koschei again. The scent of that fruit-scented soap still clung to him. She allowed herself to be supported a moment longer than she needed to before gaining her composure again. “Thanks Koschei.”

“Anytime.” A bit of a wink could be heard in his voice. He gently pushed past her.

The Doctor looked at Graham and Ryan, seeing the fear and shock in their expressions. She gave them a stern look that told them simultaneously to compose themselves and that she would explain more later, privately. They did regain control of themselves for the most part, but Ryan started fidgeting with the edge of his jacket. They looked to Yaz who looked back at them somewhat dumbfounded at the predicament, but not necessarily at this new guy who had emerged from the Tardis. Her gaze went back to watching what Koschei was doing. Graham and Ryan warily followed suit as Yaz slowly joined them. Doctor sincerely hoped that Koschei didn’t notice their reactions.

All eyes were on Koschei now.

Luckily he was a bit too distracted by the desire to see how big this ship actually was. The scale of everything inside was quite ridiculous already, so surely the outside must have been huge. He walked backwards a few paces, nearly running into Graham, thinking he was going to see more than just an old police box on a sidewalk outside of an apartment building, but alas that’s all it was on the outside. He looked to the Doctor who was grinning at him from the door of the box, leaning on the door sill with her arms crossed. This was one of her other favorite parts of gaining companions. Just watching their minds get blown by the dissonance of what they expected and what was when it concerned her Tardis. At least when they had time to actually take it in, which was a lot more infrequent than one would think. He went back to inspecting the box by taking a quick spin around it, saying things under his breath that didn’t quite turn into audible words. He made eye contact with the Doctor again and she moved out of the way to let him take a good look at the inside again. She went to stand with the others to quickly sum up what they needed to know right now.

“Is that really him?” Graham whispered to the Doctor, gesturing slightly. “And you brought him back?”

“Sort of but not really. Not anymore. Try your best to pretend he’s a new person you just met. He pretty much is, probably. He doesn’t remember anything he did and it’s all been replaced. This was what I was trying to warn you about. We’ll talk about it later.” She said very quietly so only Ryan and Graham could hear. Graham gawped at her as she walked back to the door, waiting for Koschei to come back out. He guessed all they could really do was trust her. What did they know?

It didn’t take long at all for Koschei to poke his head back out. “So what do you think?” Doctor asked, repeating the script from last time this happened. It was still fun, though this whole thing here was a test to see how much of a different person Koschei was from the original, the Master, as it were. He did after all request to be as much of himself as he could but without the things that caused him to do bad things. She was also trying to see how much she might be able to let her guard down. Maybe. After all, the Master had spent so long playing these sort of tricks on her, and even though she was very certain that wasn’t the case this time, it was still lurking in the back of her head.

“This box is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. And marvelous, but also ridiculous.” He looked at the Doctor with wonder as he stood framed by the Tardis door. “It’s so much bigger on the inside than I could have ever thought. Ridiculous.”

“Yeah, it’s some great engineering by my people. Basically all of the inside stuff is folded into the outside stuff and the inside can contain infinity. She’s a very old model though I love her just the same. Wouldn’t have another if I can help it.”

“As well you should.” He glanced to the Fam nearly huddled together on the sidewalk, though Yaz less so than the other two. Maybe they thought it was cold today? It was a little chilly, he supposed. “I should probably go introduce myself?”

“They don’t bite. Graham does have laser shoes though.”

“That’s cool.”

Koschei sauntered to the Fam offering his hand first to Ryan, who followed custom and shook it, and then to Graham who did likewise. “Hello! I’m Koschei, just a man who Doctor apparently picked up from dying in a field somewhere, sometime, and spirited back to Earth. I presume you both are part of her group of traveling companions? Yasmin was telling me about how there were a couple others that I’d get to meet before I came out here.”

“Yeah we do travel with the Doctor already. I’m Ryan and this is—”

“Graham. Ryan’s my grandson.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Ryan and Graham were shocked by how charming Koschei was, but still, he was when he pretended to be O too. Though, this did feel different.

As a bit of a prank Koschei also offered his hand to Yaz, who shook it more out of reflex than out of actual greeting. “And we already know each other.”

“Yeah we do, sort of. Anyway I’m Yasmin, as you know, but you can call me Yaz if you want. Shorter.”

Ryan gave Yaz a look that said, you know him already? Enough to use nicknames?

“Will do, Yaz.” He released Yaz’s hand, side stepping to stand next to Yaz. “And now that I’ve met everyone, what do we do now?” He directed his question to Doctor who was still by the Tardis door. 

“We?” Ryan repeated.

The Doctor shifted her weight and put her hands in her pockets.“Well now that Graham and Ryan are back from visiting friends and having lunch and Yaz visited with her family already, I guess we could hop into the Tardis and go somewhere. Probably an adventure or something. Somehow they ALWAYS turn out adventurous. How’s the cloud cities of Talus?” she offered.

“So you’re off then?” Koschei asked then, a bit of disappointment in his voice. Despite the earlier invitation, he didn’t quite believe it. He expected to be left behind, especially now that he was on Earth, out of the Tardis, and there was something off-feeling about the way the others were acting around him. “I guess I’ll have to check in with my boss and let them know what happened. Assuming they’d believe me.”

“Or you could come with us.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Won’t someone be looking for me though?”

“While you were cleaning up I looked to see if anyone with your name came up in a search. Seems like you’ve been declared MIA and presumed dead. Turns out however you got to that field, you’d been gone a while. Was kind of hard to find since you’re in intelligence, as it turns out, so I had to call in some favors to find that information. Very top secret stuff, personnel files. Also, this is a time machine, remember, so if it’s time you’re worried about…”

That made sense. If there was no one looking for him here since he was presumed dead, had no friends, family, or any other identifying presence that could be traced outside of his job, then who would miss him? That was almost sad actually, if he thought about it. What if he had someone who would miss him, he mused for a moment. So there really wasn’t anything that was stopping him.

The Doctor could see the thought process in his eyes. “How’s your running, Koschei? We do a lot of that, somehow.”

Decision made, he answered. “I don’t know but I’m willing to find out.”

The Doctor beamed. “Brilliant.” She happily motioned for the other to follow her and went into the Tardis. The others followed behind her. When they got in, she was already at the console pushing buttons and getting ready for take off. The door shut behind them. “Shouldn’t be a rough ride but, you know just in case, be ready.” She put her hand on a lever. “Cloud cities of Talus, here we come.” She pulled the lever and the Tardis dematerialized. They were off.


End file.
